By: Dr. Matt Warnock
Having formed in Los Angeles in 1991, progressive rock band Bigelf has worked tirelessly over the past nineteen years to grow into one of the most interesting and ground breaking bands in the genre. With a sound that is as unique as it is intriguing, Bigelf stretches the boundaries of modern prog-rock with their inventive instrumentation, orchestration and high-energy stage show, complete with Arthur Brown theatrics and dress. Though they may be better known over in Europe, especially in Sweden where they enjoy mass popularity, the Elf is quickly becoming recognized as one of the top names on the U.S. progressive scene today.
Having just finished a two-stage tour of Europe and America, opening for prog-rock legends Dream Theater, the band is riding high as they build on the success of their latest release, 2008’s Cheat the Gallows, and prepare to get back out on the road with Dream Theater this coming March. With their fan base growing in both Europe and the U.S., Bigelf is bearing the fruits of their labor as they head into their third decade as a band.
Bigelf lead singer Damon Fox recently sat down with Guitar International Magazine to discuss the bands recent tour with Dream Theater, the future of music videos and to give his unique take on the music industry.
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Matt Warnock: Bigelf recently spent time on tour opening for prog-rock legends Dream Theater. What’s it like going on the road with a band of that caliber and celebrity?
Damon Fox: It was absolutely incredible. I certainly wasn’t an expert on Dream Theater’s catalogue, or the Progressive Nation tour, before we went on the road with them. But, we were able to check out their sets each night, and we got more and more into their music as the tour went on.
They’re really great guys and I don’t know if I’ve ever witnessed so much great musicianship each and every night. Just watching Petrucci rip it up every night really drove home the fact that we were in the presence of true virtuosos.
Matt: Did you feel a lot of pressure to really nail your sets on the tour, especially opening for a headliner like Dream Theater?
Damon: It was a challenge that’s for sure. I think when you’re an artist, and work in the entertainment field, there’s always pressure surrounding any performance. With Dream Theater, their fans are just incredible and are very well informed when it comes to the band and their music, and the progressive rock genre in general.
Some people did their homework and were aware of Bigelf before coming to the shows and got into it right from the beginning. Others had their arms crossed and we had to bludgeon them over the head into enjoying our sets. Laughs We always had a large number of people coming out to meet us after the shows, asking us to sign merch, so it was a fun experience for us in all respects.
The tour itself wasn’t really a rock show type of thing. The shows were all in theaters with seats, so as with all concerts everyone stands up for the headliner to cheer them on, but nobody stands for the opener. Laughs It was a different vibe then what we’re used to, playing in clubs and theaters with standing room, but it was a great experience for us to meet all the fans and to open for a band like Dream Theater.
Matt: You’ve also spent time this year touring over in Europe, do you find that European audiences are more open to your music than American audiences? Or is it a case of music being music and the fans dig it no matter where you are?
Damon: My experience with Bigelf has been that it’s a little bit crazier over in Europe. They seem to be more into heavy metal and progressive rock over there than in America right now. Everybody was excited on the Dream Theater tour in America, but there seems to be a lack of interest in classic rock here, shifting the popularity to other genres of music, whereas classic rock has never really gone away in Europe. At least that’s been my experience.
Matt: Speaking of classic rock bands, one of the big influences that comes out in your writing and playing comes from the Pink Floyd albums of the ’70s. How big of an influence were those albums on you as you were growing up and starting to explore your musical career?
Damon: Pink Floyd has a deep intellectual side to their music, which explores the dark side of the music business that I think has had a big influence on me. I was really affected by their music and their lyrics, their desire to make a journey within the context of one song. After I started to write kind of in that style I realized that nobody else was really doing that sort of thing. I mean, everyone has influences that come out in their music, and one of mine is Floyd.
When Ace joined the band, he has this Gilmour kind of sound that never really came out in his other bands, but is prevalent with Bigelf. When we combined his sound with my vocals that influence really came out and so we just went with it and explored it together.
Some people will say stuff like “Bigelf wants to be Pink Floyd,” but I think all musicians have that side to them, they all have their favorite bands who they look up to and aspire to be like. For me, Floyd has this aura about them that I’m not sure anyone will ever capture again. It was something very unique, and the way they approached recordings and live shows is something that has influenced many bands over the years.
Matt: The band also has kind of a darker side to it, with your album and song titles and the way you dress, for example. Do you ever get pigeonholed as a Goth or Emo band because people just look at your album covers and song titles and don’t take the time to actually listen to your music before passing judgment?
Damon: Perception is everything. I’m constantly just dumbfounded on perception and I laugh about that kind of stuff when people write about it. People ask me about our look and I often describe it as Willy Wonka goes to Hell. It’s playful and it’s fun, in the best way possible, like the way Arthur Brown used to be. People often think we’re following the Alice Cooper look and vibe, but to me it’s much more Arthur Brown. It’s more haunting than campy.
I try not to categorize or analyze when people write stuff like that. We’ll get called Goth but to me Goth is like The Cure, and bands like that, which I don’t think we sound like at all. Sometimes reviews and articles can get pretty hilarious. For example, I wear a hat on stage and sometimes when I’m getting into it the hat will fall off and I’ll grab it off the floor and put it back on. After one concert I read an online review of the show and the guy wrote something like, “The music was cool but I couldn’t get into the singer changing his hat every few minutes.” He didn’t realize it was the same hat, he thought it was some sort of gimmick that I was switching out hats five times a song. Laughs
I don’t care if people like the band or not, that’s for them to decide. But perception is always a funny thing and it leads to a lot of different views of the same situation by different people. Some people have also called us ’80s Glam, and I’m thinking, “I hope they mean ’70s Glam,” because if not that means they’re lumping us in with Poison and Cinderella, bands like that. Nothing wrong with those bands, but our music is just light years away from what those guys were doing musically and with their image.
Matt: You’ve been quoted as saying that you don’t think bands can be dangerous anymore. Can you elaborate on what you meant by that statement?
Damon: I think that bands can’t live that dangerous lifestyle anymore. Like David Lee Roth, Axl Rose and Guns ‘n’ Roses, trashing hotel rooms, getting arrested, putting pianos in pools, throwing TV’s out of windows, all the stuff that Zeppelin did, or Jim Morrison. That kind of band and rock star lifestyle just doesn’t exist anymore, for whatever reason.
Matt: Why do you think that is, why can’t bands be dangerous anymore?
Damon: It used to be a part of being a rock star. There was a certain element of entertainment for the public to see and hear about bands doing these kinds of things. Nowadays, I think that law enforcement is cracking down on rock stars that live the crazier lifestyle, and people don’t want to hear about their favorite singer getting arrested anymore, it’s something that’s come and gone.
If you push the envelope, and do things like that, you’ll go to jail. With the internet and TMZ, people can’t really get away with those kinds of antics anymore. There’s always someone around to catch them in the act, and it can really damage your career.
Matt: One of the things that the internet has changed, besides what you just mentioned, is that bands are making videos and posting them online, rather than getting them played on MTV and other music networks. Do you think that it’s still necessary for a band to make music videos, even though they’re getting played online for free and not on networks like VH1 and MTV anymore?
Damon: I think spending a ton of money on videos these days is a mistake, because networks aren’t showing them anymore. But at the same time YouTube and those sites are everything to a band as far as gaining exposure. It’s like the new television. So it’s important to represent your band in that way. As far as getting on MTV or VH1 is concerned, I don’t think that matters anymore.
I notice all the time that people are uploading songs to YouTube with just a picture in the background, so it’s also replacing radio to a certain extent. I think it’s kind of sad that the networks have moved away from playing videos because that was one of the cool things about the ’80s and ’90s, the visual breakthroughs that happened with music videos.
Having a budget from the label to make a kick ass video was the norm and bands were able to show a different side of their creativity through their videos, but that seems to be less important these days. I hope that videos come back to the mainstream, and I think in the long term the internet could make that happen. But in the meantime it seems like cell phone videos are becoming more popular online than produced videos, so we’ll see what happens.
Matt: It also seems like bands are turning out albums these days at a much quicker pace than they used to, mostly due to changes in technology. Since you’re latest album Cheat the Gallows has been receiving strong reviews are you already planning your next album to follow up on that success?
Damon: I’m not in album mode quite yet. I do have a few album ideas sketched out and tons of songs in the mix, but we’re going to focus on Cheat the Gallows for a while. I don’t think it’s peaked at all, there seems to be a strong wave of interest pushing the album forward, so we really want to focus on taking advantage of that to get our music out to as many people as possible.
After that starts to slow down we’ll get together and start checking out what we’ve all been working on. What new ideas we’ve come up with and new songs we’ve written, then we’ll start to get things ready for the next recording.
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Links
Bigelf Homepage
Review of Cheat the Gallows
Cheat the Gallows on Amazon
